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Adobe: Lack of 'cooperation' kept Flash off iPad

After being labelled "lazy" by Steve Jobs, Adobe has responded by saying the iPad would have had Flash support had Apple been willing to cooperate.

By Martin James, 5 Feb 2010 at 10:32

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Adobe has fired off another volley in its war of words with Apple boss Steve Jobs, saying a lack of cooperation from Apple was to blame for Flash support not making it onto the newly launched iPad.

Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch has now waded into the affair, claiming his company was happy to work with Apple on adding Flash support to the iPad, but that it had “not had the required cooperation” from Apple.

One of the long-standing criticisms of the Apple iPhone is its lack of Flash support, and when Jobs took to the stage to finally reveal the iPad last month, it became clear it too was unable to work with Adobe's video platform.

Adobe highlighted the fact on its official blog, saying iPad users were the real losers in the situation: “without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70 per cent of games and 75 per cent of video on the web.”

But Jobs asserted Adobe had no-one to blame but itself for not being on board the iPad project, calling it “lazy” for not addressing “buggy” software, and saying Flash would soon be left behind by HTML5 anyway.

But Lynch has upped the ante once again in a blog post of nearly 1,000 words, innocently titled “Open Access to Content and Applications”.

In it he staunchly refutes Jobs' allegations – even if they were made off the record – claiming that Flash wouldn't be in the position it was now if it was indeed “buggy”.

“We are now on the verge of delivering Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones with all but one of the top manufacturers. This includes Google's Android, RIM's Blackberry, Nokia, Palm Pre and many others across form factors including not only smartphones but also tablets, netbooks, and internet-connected TVs,” Lynch wrote.

“So, what about Flash running on Apple devices? We have shown that Flash technology is starting to work on these devices today by enabling standalone applications for the iPhone to be built on Flash.

“We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.”